Father's Eyes
by WayToDawn324
Summary: A daughter who thinks she'll never measure up, a son who's on the edge of giving up. A songfic about Squall's children and the way they're seen through their father's eyes.


**Author's Notes:**

**_WayToDawn: _**_Hey everyone, I hope that you like this fic, I thought of it while listening to the song Father's Eyes by Mark Schultz. I really hope you like it. Enjoy!_

__**Disclaimer: **I don't own Final Fantasy VIII or it's characters, they belong to Square Enix. I don't own the Father's Eyes. It belongs to Mark Schultz.

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><p><em><strong>Tomorrow she'll be turning seventeen. But somehow the mirror has become her enemy.<strong>_

As Lea Leonhart looked in the mirror she sighed. _I'll never be beautiful enough to get his attention._She thought.

_**Feelin' like she'll never measure up. Feelin' like she'll never be enough.**_

She fell into the chair beside her vanity. _He'll never see me as anything else but a friend._

_**In her father's eyes, he is taken by her beauty. And captivated by her every time.**_

Squall entered his daughter's room. His breath was taken away by her beauty. The way her long black hair fell onto her shoulders, the way her blue eyes shined. He saw the disappointment on her face and frowned.

_**In her father's eyes, he is longing just to tell her, she's never been more lovely in her life.**_

Lea looked up at him. "Daddy, do you think I'm pretty?" Her eyes shimmering with tears.

He sighed and dropped to one knee in front of his daughter. "You're the most beautiful girl I know. If he doesn't see that, he doesn't deserve you." He answered her.

_**If only she could see herself one time... in her father's eyes.**_

Lea smiled through her tears and wrapped her arms around Squall's neck. "Thank you, Dad. I love you."

"I love you too, baby." He stroked her black hair.

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><p><em><strong>He's on the edge of giving up tonight.<strong>_

Toby looked at the gun laying in his hands, through his brown hair. _Why did I get to live when they had to die?_He thought.

_**He's feelin' like he wasted the best days of his life.**_

"I shouldn't be alive today." He said, starting to raise the gun to his head.

_**Afraid he'll never be the man he thought that he could be.**_

He remembered that night. They were drunk, him and his friends. He was driving too fast and a car crashed into them, their car was upturned. He was able to pull his best friend out of the passenger seat through the shattered windshield, but his girlfriend and other friend died at the scene.

_If I didn't drive drunk that night, they wouldn't have died._He thought bitterly.

_**When he looks inside he's so ashamed... of what he sees.**_

He remembers his father telling him that they died.

"It's all my fault they're dead." He said, voice cracking.

_**But in his father's eyes he is a son of glory. The image of a strong and mighty king.**_

Squall leaned back in his office chair. _Maybe I shouldn't have left him alone..._ He thought as he remembered how broken Toby had looked like.

Squall stood up, deciding to go back home.

_**In his father's eyes, there's more left in the story. He's fighting hard to hold back tears of pride.**_

Looking back on the day after the accident, he remembered how proud he was of his son for taking responsibility for his actions.

_**If only he could see himself tonight... in his father's eyes.**_

Tears silently slipped down his face, gun shaking as he pressed it to the side of his head.

_**So no matter where you are, and no matter what you've done... you're not alone, you're not alone.**_

Squall felt a sinking feeling in his chest. _Something's wrong, I can feel it._He thought, breaking into a run toward the dorm him and his children lived in.

_**And no matter where you've been, and no matter where you're from... come back home, come back home.**_

Toby was struggling to pull the trigger. _What would Lea think? What would Dad think? They would probably think I'm a coward._

'_**Cos in your father's eyes, you're loved with such abandon. He's running to you now arms open wide.**_

Squall burst through the doors to his family's dorm.

Squall ran to his son's bedroom door. He turned the doorknob, but it was locked. "Toby! Toby, open the door!" He shouted to his child.

_**In your father's eyes, you're safe and you're accepted. There's nothing you can do to change his mind.**_

"I don't deserve to be alive, Dad. I should've died that day." He choked out.

Squall wasn't waiting. He kicked open the door and found his son holding a gun to his head.

He ran to Toby, pushing the gun away from his head and pulling him into his arms.

A sob escaped Toby's lips and tears started to fall on his father's shirt.

"You don't deserve to die. What happened that night was an accident. And your friends wouldn't want you to kill yourself." Squall whispered to Toby.

"I'm sorry, Dad. I'm sorry." Toby apologized, feeling ashamed of himself.

"I'm sorry for not being here for you when you needed me." Squall pushed his son back and brushed away the tears staining his face.

"Don't feel like you have to go to such extremes. You can come to me about anything, Toby. Anything." He reassured the young man.

Toby nodded. "Thanks."

Squall pulled him back into his arms. "And let's get this straight, if you _ever _pull a stunt like that again, I'll bring you back just so I can kill you again."

Toby laughed. "Yes sir."

The older man smiled. "I love you too much to let you die."

_**If only you could see yourself one time, if only you could see yourself one time... in your father's eyes, in your father's eyes.**_


End file.
